Perfect attendance in Rotary is not as difficult as it was years ago for several reasons. The main reason is that a Rotarian now has from two weeks before to two weeks after a missed meeting to attend a make-up meeting. Before the change to this rule, the period was only from one week before to one week after. The second reason is the availability of Rotary e-clubs where a Rotarian can go online to an e-club and watch a program for 30 minutes or more to qualify to attend.

This allows the member to qualify to make up a meeting without having to attend in person. A third reason perfect attendance is so much easier is that many Rotary functions, in addition to club meetings, can now be counted as a make-up meeting. Examples include attending a Rotary board meeting, participating in a Rotary community service or fundraising event, or attending a Rotary district function. The last reason it’s easier now is that the Internet makes it so much easier to find the time and place of a local Rotary meeting while you’re on the go. That said, having perfect attendance is still something many Rotarians take pride in, and with good reason.

Let’s look at each of these factors individually.

In 1995, Rotary changed the attendance rules to allow an additional week before and after the missed meeting for a Rotarian to make up for the missed club meeting. This extra time makes it much easier to find an opportunity to do your makeup. If you’re traveling, if there’s a family crisis, or if work is very busy, this gives you much more leeway to find an opportunity to hold the meeting or function.

At the same time, the rules on what qualifies as makeup were changed to include the types of activities listed above. This makes it possible for a Rotarian to use the types of activities he may already have been doing to cover a missed meeting.

For Rotarians who are accustomed to using the Internet, hosting electronic club meetings is a simple and easy way to achieve perfect attendance. It takes less time, is very convenient, and helps with general Rotary education and awareness when using compensatory electronic club meetings.

The fact that a Rotarian can easily find a recovery meeting while traveling makes this option much more convenient for most traveling Rotarians. In the past, it was necessary to find or have a copy of the manual that listed all the clubs and their meeting times and locations. This may or may not have been current. The Rotarian then had to plan ahead to take meeting notes at the times and places he planned to travel. Now there are several great options for locating a local club meeting. One option, of course, is to use the Rotary International website. Another great resource is to use the new Everything Rotary iPhone app for Rotarians with an iPhone. With this app, the Rotarian simply clicks the “Find a Club” icon and a map of the local area appears with pins at the location of local clubs. Clicking on a pin brings up the location and time of the meeting. This allows the Rotarian to find the meeting using their phone’s web browser service and does not need to have a laptop or try to use the RI site on the small screen of a phone. To get this app, simply visit the iPhone store in the app store and download the Everything Rotary app for iPhone, and use the Rotary Club Locator feature.